What's Happening

The Power of Pleasant Activities

What are you looking forward to today? How you answer that question will significantly impact your mood and actions throughout the entire day.

When we have pleasant, fun, meaningful, or relaxing activities to look forward to in our lives it can help promote a more balanced, positive perspective to inform our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Just knowing, “I get to go out to dinner with my friend tomorrow night,” or “I’m going to make time to stop by the store and pick up my favorite magazine this afternoon,” or “I’m excited about the concert next weekend,” can truly influence how we experience life.

We can remain more hopeful, stressors can seem more manageable, and days can feel more generally satisfying when we make time to schedule in pleasant activities and events. Subsequently, this enhanced mood can provide fantastic behavioral benefits such as an increased likelihood to: make healthier choices, engage in positive interactions with others, and be more productive and creative at work.

So choose to mindfully plan in something fun for yourself at least one time this week! It’s an easy, enjoyable form of self-care that will help you manage your stress and improve your mood and overall health.

How amazing would it be if every single morning you woke up you thought of at least one nice thing you could look forward to doing that day? What a way to start the day…

Additional Info:

A Really Great Read: “Being Happy”, by Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D., champions a more balanced approach to life and emphasizes the importance of “recovery” time (i.e., time for pleasant activities!)

Encouraging Action: Is there a hobby, activity, or sport you used to enjoy but haven’t fit into your schedule recently? How could you plan it into your life more regularly? What is one small, do-able, pleasant activity you could make time to enjoy today?

Inspirational Quotations: “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”—Eleanor Roosevelt

“Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun.”—Randy Pausch